“E” is 2022’s Letter of the Year.
BMW has created a colour-changing exterior paint, E Ink on the BMW iX Flow. The My Modes allow the driver to tailor the atmosphere in the interior entirely to their personal mood and the driving experience they want.
Adrian van Hooydonk, Head of BMW Group Design: “The BMW iX Flow is an advanced research and design project and a great example of the forward thinking that BMW is known for.” It’s not only a fad colour range that is the highlight of this successful prism, but that variable exterior colour can increase efficiency. How? How light bounces off against light and dark surfaces will contribute to the strength and endurance of the interior of the vehicle. For example, if it’s cold outside: a dark exterior would absorb sunlight and “warm” the car inside. As opposed to a light exterior colour during the warmer months when it would create a cooler effect in the interior, as light colours bounce off light. This would in turn help cut the amount of aircon required from the vehicle’s air conditioning, inadvertently reducing the amount of energy the vehicle needs… equaling to less fuel or electricity consumption.
Electrophoretic colouring is based on a technology developed by E Ink that is most well-known from the displays used in eReaders. When the driver chooses their desired setting the paint coating which contains millions of microcapsules that contain either negative (white pigments) or positive (black) pigments collect at the surface to create the vehicle’s colour.
‘New technologies will provide a whole new level of decision-making freedom in the future. “This gives the driver the freedom to express different facets of their personality or even their enjoyment of change outwardly, and to redefine this each time they sit into their car,” says Stella Clarke, Head of Project for the BMW iX Flow featuring E Ink. “Similar to fashion or the status ads on social media channels, the vehicle then becomes an expression of different moods and circumstances in daily life.” ‘
